Senior Category Manager

**_As a strategic expert in the category of the non-alcoholic beverages, you are continuously looking for volume and value growth opportunities together with our strategic customers. Consumer, shopper & customer dynamics are changing rapidly. As a Senior Manager, Category Development you will show your Category leadership to drive this transformational change in the coming years._**

**Category Development Team**

The Category Development team makes it their mission to make sure that the category of non-alcoholic beverages keeps on growing with our customers. The team is very customer focused and a highly valued partner for our customers because we have and use in-depth knowledge of the category and our shoppers/consumers. For this we are objectively acknowledged by our customers as a world class category team compared to other key FMCG suppliers.

The team is part of the Commercial Development department and works closely together with other teams (Account management, shopper marketing, RGM, portfolio, Field Sales ) to reach its objectives.

**Context**

As a Senior Manager Category Development you are responsible for translating our Category Vision to our customers, ensuring sustainable growth of the drinks category. You will be working closely together with Account Managers & Shopper Marketeers to develop a Customer business plan adapted to the Category opportunities at the customer and you will engage strategic retailers to join us on this journey of Category Growth.

**Your job will involve**
- ** Stakeholder Category Engagement **:Build and leverage in-depth category-, brand-, shopper
- and customer knowledge. Connect all the insights dots to have a clear understanding of the Category & Shopper dynamics and present this in an easy & inspiring way to key stakeholders (customers & internal stakeholders)
- ** Category Strategy Development**:Develop and execute comprehensive category strategies tailored to your customer, based on deep insights on consumer behaviour, market dynamics, and competitor activity. Work closely together in cross functional teams to ensure alignment and execution against the category and brand strategies.
- ** Range Planning**: Lead and optimize product assortments based on shopper preferences, market and customer dynamics and sales data. Tailor assortment strategies to suit the unique needs and expectations of your customer’s environments, ensuring a well-balanced mix of brands, sizes, and variants.
- ** Space Planning **:Responsible for efficient Space development, efficient merchandising including shelf, displays & cooling in line with the category role and objectives.
- ** Advanced Analytics**:Conduct in-depth assortment and shelf analyses for strategic customers, providing data-driven recommendations aligned with customer strategies and merchandising efficiency.
- ** Category Performance Monitoring**: Track execution KPIs, guiding teams to address gaps and drive improvement.
- ** Future-Focused Projects**:Collaborate on the next-gen initiatives, developing new concepts based on evolving shopper expectations.

**Requirements**:

- You are a **strategic thinker**, with the ability to build category growth plans with clear & simple recommendations based on a factbased, multi-source analysis
- You have excellent developed **analytical skills and in-depth knowledge of relevant sources** and combine this with a passion for transforming data into insights. (Nielsen, GfK and other data providers)
- You have excellent **software knowledge** to process analyses in a fast, accurate and efficient way (Excel, Powerpoint,..)
- With strong leadership &** influencing** skills, you are able to** engage** your stakeholders and take them on a journey of category growth
- You are a **persuasive**, commercial & **customer focused** team player and you thrive by growing your customer
- You are an excellent **communicator** and **presenter**, you have the ability to set a clear vision and motivate others towards it through strong yet simple storytelling
- You have **at least 5 years of experience in the FMCG sector**. A minimum of **2 to 3 years relevant experience in the Category/Business Development or Business Insights is a significant plus**, as well as an excellent knowledge of the market and category

**_ Join us in growing our customers & our category by helping us shape the future of non-alcoholic beverages_**

**In addition to a cheerful team, we provide**:

- A competitive salary
- Real opportunities for career development within CCEP
- Tailor-made training courses for employees
- Attractive non-statutory benefits such as hospitalisation insurance (your partner and child(ren) living under the same roof are also entitled), disability insurance, a pension plan, a choice of dental insurance or sports and culture vouchers, a good work/life balance (50% teleworking for positions that allow it) and much more....

**Who are we?**

We are Coca-Cola Europacific Partners (CCEP) - a dedicated tea